An elastic wheel typically comprises a disk to be fixed on an axle hub and a rim for supporting a tire, where a vibration proof body is provided between the disk and the rim. Various proposals have been put forth to provide the elastic wheel with improved vibration proof performance and riding comfortableness performance. As one of these proposals, a tire wheel is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Sho. 59-188701, in which a spring is used as a vibration proof body to improve the riding comfort.
Alternatively, an elastic wheel with a vibrationproof body made of rubber and arranged between a rim and a disk has been also proposed. For example, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Sho. 57-73203, there is proposed an elastic wheel in which a rim is connected to a disk via a rubber-like elastic body. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei. 5-338401 discloses an elastic wheel where a clearance is created between a rim and an elastic wheel and a vibrationproof rubber is fitted into the clearance. In WO 9833666 official gazette, there is disclosed a wheel barrier assembly in which an annular rubber strip is arranged between a rim and an inner rim having the same profile as that of the rim.
However, in the conventional elastic wheels where rubbers are used as their vibrationproof bodies and are uniformly arranged between their rims and disks respectively, each of the rubber elastic body, which is cemented to the inner peripheral surface of the rim and the outer peripheral surface of the disk by means of vulcanization adhesion, is provided. Therefore, the rubber elastic body appropriately prevents each of vibrations transmitted from the rim to the disk in the axial direction, the radial direction, and the rotational direction, but there is a problem that it cannot prevent a displacement of the rubber elastic body under a heavy load. In other words, the cross sectional profile of the rubber is consistent, so that it is difficult to obtain appropriate vibrationproof characteristics with respect to each of cases from the small input to the large input. In this respect, there is the same problem when the spring is used as the vibrationproof body.
Furthermore, it has not been make clear the relationship between the rubber arranged between the rim and the disk and the soundproof performance, so that it is susceptible of improvement in terms of noise-proof.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an elastic wheel with improvements in riding comfortableness performance, vibrationproof performance, and soundproof performance without impairment of the durability and the safety at any time of small input to large input.